Lydia Louise

You are so happy now that you can crawl. Day after day, we hear reports from Claire, Patti, Maddie & Kaylin that you are a happy baby with such a sweet personality. You love to try different foods. Most recently, you’ve had waffle, donut, mangoes, eggs, pasta & grapes. 

You say dadda, mama, and up (according to daddy). You wave, stick out your tongue at us, and are very close to pulling yourself up to stand. You can stand while holding onto a table for short periods of time if we prop you up. You seem to love baths and music class. We find that you crawl around to all the families and like to watch Ms. Alisa. 

You have four teeth. Two on the top and two on the bottom. You’re wearing size 4-5 diapers and clothes range from 12-24 month. Primarily, 18 month.  

You still wake up anywhere from 1-4 times a night to nurse. Daddy is kind enough to change your diaper before handing you off to mom for milk. 

Lydia, you’re growing up so fast!

You started crawling forward in the past week and also had your top two front teeth come in. you bite a lot. ouch! you even give mommy a little laugh when she says ow or no.

you have had two ear infections and the lovely hand foot and mouth disease. thankfully, you only had a mild case of hfm but you had the blisters primarily on your vulva and booooty (as your brother would say). you were sent home Wednesday afternoon and went back to school on monday.

you seem to love babbling. you say mama and baba frequently. while nursing, its not unusual for you to tug at mommy’s hair, make angry sounds or pull off mommy’s glasses. in the last two days, daycare started giving you formula since youre such a great eater. “she just loves milk and taking a bottle” they say.

We’re hoping to get you back to sleeping thru the night again someday. You’re still waking up twice each night usually between 10-12 and again between 2-4. 

Oh Lydia Lou, you are so darn cute but would be much cuter if you were sleeping through the night again. At seven months old, you started waking up 2-3-4 times a night. At your most recent appointment, over the weekend, you were weighing in at 19 pds and 5 ounces. You’ve been mostly healthy so far except for one round of pink eye and an upper respiratory infection (last week). 

You love watching your brother run around. You let out a little laugh.  You like playing peek a boo and you’re starting to wave. You really love grabbing the cat (Jinx)  by the fur and mommy and daddy’s hair.  You started biting mommy while nursing and let out a little laugh when mommy says no or ow. 

You had your first Thanksgiving, baby!  Although most of the food ended up on you instead of in your mouth. Seriously, you had stuffing in your sleeves and potatoes in your socks! We gave you a bath and had an outfit change after the meal. 

Your two front bottom teeth came in over the last 2 weeks. We are introducing you to “people food” as Everett calls it and a number of different baby foods. 

1. We learned from Claire you were taking about four 5 oz bottles of breast milk at daycare. 20 ounces while there!  Needless to say, this demand has worked through Mommy’s 3.5 month freezer stash. 

You’ve been mostly healthy with the exception of this past month. You caught pink eye and a nasty wet cough. Despite these ailments, you are still in good spirits. 

You love jumping in the exersaucer and sitting up. You have excellent head control and are engaged with the environment. 

Dear Ms. Lydia:

This is your Dad; given that we encounter each other every night, you can rest assured I have not forgotten about you. Now that Mommy and Daddy are both working full-time, we’ve been a little busy. But we love you dearly…and you’re such a dear.

• You really are expressive with me. You like it when I smile at you and when I mouth words or sing to you. You do your squawk-laugh and kick your feet as hard as you can.
• You seem to have enchanted everyone who takes care of you. Your caretakers say you’re a very patient and pleasant girl who has a strong and healthy appetite. Well-done.
• You’re quite adorable. People often look at you and smile; I got tons of grins when I wore you one time at Kroger. Granted, I was using the wrong baby carrier and mom wasn’t too thrilled, but you liked the view and the people liked seeing you.
• You’re rolling over! You love your exer-saucer! We now strap you in your swing! In other words, you’re a mover and shaker. Your head control is darn near perfect and your head is beautifully shaped; no molding helmet for you. I have this sinking feeling that you will be an early crawler and walker. I’ve loved not having gates up everywhere…I guess I’ll have to put them back up.
• You seem to love your brother, though I think he also fascinates you. He loves grabbing your cheeks…but then you love watching him. You laugh at his movements and dancing!

Take care and I know we’ll write more soon.

Mommy’s maternity leave is sadly coming to an end after 16 weeks at home. We did 3 short trial runs at AJ. I know you’re in great care with Patti and Claire. 

You’re an enjoyable baby. 

You smile easily. Your laughing is not quite as frequent but I’ve heard it a handful of times. 

You like using your hands to grab objects and things. You like dropping open your mouth in response to mommy giving you an open mouth look. 

You had some trouble taking a bottle but I think we didn’t have the technique quite down (paced bottle feeding where you are held upright and the bottle is horizontal). You still haven’t taken a pacifier. 

You don’t like the car seat and will cry for periods of time while riding in it. White noise seems to help calm you down though. 

You don’t usually cry in the middle of the night when it comes to feeding but make cooing and other baby noises that I swear sound like you’re saying mama
You’re a pretty efficient nurser too. You usually eat for 5-8 mins in the middle of the night on one side and are back asleep. 
You have also found a way to protest the swing. You arch your back to the point where you slide down. 

We weighed you recently at mamas hip during a family music jam class and you are over 16 pounds. Almost double your birth weight well before 6 months old!  Yay!  

Dear sweet Lydia:

You are such a happy little girl. You are 13 pds, 8 oz (according to your 2 month appointment). You are sleeping 6-10 hours/night and when you wake up, you rarely cry. You coo, smile and have great head control. You still are not a fan of your car seat for long periods of time and you won’t take a pacifier or a bottle. You seem to enjoy the ring sling and easily fall asleep in it. Mommy loves this time home with you. 

Dear Lydia:

So I’m a day or two late writing my first entry You won’t remember but it is possible your mom won’t let me forget. I have had so many thoughts and ideas pop into my head that I intended to make a pen/paper journal for you. But this is the 21st century and I want you to be able to read this, my handwriting not being the best. For now, I’m going to jot down some quick notes. I intend on following-up with a whole “birth from Dad’s perspective” entry, but that will have to wait for another day.

• Smiling. You’re starting to do that and making me all weepy and happy. I don’t know that you “know” me, but you’re certainly not unhappy when we make eye contact at night and when I hold you. That’s pretty neat.
• Farting. You’ve got some gas these days and rotating your hips seems to help. It also seems to entertain you as you don’t cry when I do it. It isn’t the most glamorous part of parenthood, but it is something over which you and I can bond.
• Sleeping. You’re not the best at GETTING to sleep, but you do stay down pretty well. You’re definitely better at it than your brother was (and still is to some extent). Let’s hope you teach him a thing or two.
• Eating. You are a great eater. Keep it up. I’m happy about how you’re growing and developing.
• Moving. You’ve got some pretty amazing head control already. Soon, you’ll be in the running stroller with Daddy and E will be fighting for time with me. Ought to be interesting. You don’t really know what to do with your arms and legs, but it you seem to be starting.

I love you very much. You’re not much of a person yet, but you’re definitely part of my life. I look forward to seeing who you become…or, rather, who “you” are.

Dad

Lydia Lou. You’re quite the growing girl. At your one month check up, you are weighing in at 11 pds, 2 ounces and 22.25 inches. 

You’re giving us 4-5 hour stretches of sleep at night. You typically wake sometime btw 12-2 and 4-5:30.  

You’re nursing like a champ. You get a little fussy about once a day usually afternoon or early evening. We call it the witching hour. 

You are quite attentive and have good head control. You’ve gone pee on mommy more than 10 times while having your diaper changed (many more times than your big brother ever did). You sneeze a lot. You had your first real bath from mom and dad this past week. You didn’t know what to think. You don’t like having gas, being wet or poopy, or sometimes having your clothes changed.  

At 5 weeks, you’ve given us several nights of 7 hours of sleep although you make us work for putting you to bed. It can take 2-3 hours. Usually, daddy has the magic influence that finally gets you into a slumber with his white noise phone app and bouncing hold. 

I think we’ve also seen glimpse of your first smile this past week (5 weeks). Yay!

I only wish you would take a paci. It makes car rides and adventures out of the house a little more tense for your parents.